Nordkalottleden 2021

Had a zero yesterday. Now my backpack is heavy again. Not much of a joy. The stretch to the Northern part of Kilpisjärvi is tiresome. Tiresome just like pretty much everything this day. There’s a huge camping there, might have been nice to stay there. At least a lot cheaper. But then there’s no supermarket.
The trail continues, back up to the foot of Saana again just to drop back down to the road. A small parking filled with cars. That’s where people set out for Treriksröset if they don’t take the boat. You enter a beautiful nature reserve. But it’s quite steep and up, up, up for a long time. There’s a lot of reminiscent war history around. Mostly bunkers and shelters of the Germans when they expected the Soviet Army. You can still smell the fear. But no battles happened at that place.
The trail to Treriksröset seems endless. For a long time you follow the steep walls of a mountain. It’s exhausting. At least if you just resupplied.
Treriksröset itself is even less impressive as I thought. Lots of people doing silly things and taking pictures.
Now I had to decide. Follow the GPS track into Norway for a more scenic route through a deep canyon or do the real thing and keep following Nordkalottleden? My cold fingers and the sight of numerous glaciers over in Norway made me pick the Swedish side. It just looked cozier and warmer.
I think it was the right choice.
Wanted to make another 10km after Treriksröset but after climbing another 4km back up into the mountains I felt like „noooo“, found a perfect spot just before the terrain looked like it could get too rocky to easily find something so I settled down.En savoir plus